Revenues at Hungarian full-service telecoms group Magyar Telekom grew by 1.9% year-on-year to HUF162.3 billion (USD550 million) in Q1 2021, driven by strong contributions from fixed and mobile services, although the growth rate of fixed broadband internet contribution decelerated. Gross profit improved by HUF900 million y-o-y to HUF93.1 billion as the contribution from fixed and mobile operations was partly offset by the negative impact of interconnect costs and telecom tax, as well as an increase in other direct costs, including higher TV content fees. As a result of gross profit improvement and lower indirect costs, EBITDA increased 8.2% y-o-y to HUF50.2 billion in January-March 2021.
Magyar Telekom’s customer base continued to expand in a year-on-year comparison in Hungary: fixed broadband subscriptions rose by 7.1% to 1.34 million, while the number of TV customers increased by 6.5% to 1.26 million supported by continued growth in IPTV subscribers, up 12.8% to 953,000. Post-paid mobile users climbed 3.4% y-o-y to 3.48 million at 31 March 2021.
Tibor Rekasi, Magyar Telekom CEO commented: ‘The operating environment during the first quarter of 2021 has been challenging as the emergence of a third wave of COVID-19 proved to be more severe than previous rounds. However, thanks to our agile approach, Magyar Telekom was able to adapt swiftly to evolving conditions and build on lessons learned throughout the pandemic to improve our financial and operational performance.’